nd crashing downward as though the earth were rent up by the
roots; and then the wild, shrill yells of surprise and alarm which went
up from our people as they rolled and flung themselves out of the way of
the falling mountain--as we thought it! _Hau_! Many were crushed,
powdered, lying there stamped flat into the earth as the rocks had
passed over them; and I--I had escaped the same fate by no wider a space
than the thickness of my shield.

"The way was clear for us now, for we saw before us a great dark opening
in the base of the cliff extending for some length. But before we could
gain it there was a high ridge, as it were a rampart of rock, crowning
the rounded spur in a semicircle. Soaring the war-shout, we were about
to leap across this, when a loud call from our leaders peremptorily
forbade as, and we paused in the very leap.

"Not all, though. Some in the wild impetuosity of their course had
already sprung, and these were writhing below in the agony of death and
wounds, writhing transfixed. For on the other side of this ridge lay a
depressed hollow studded with bristling spear-points, standing upright
from the ground.

"And now, as we stood there massed upon the ridge, assegais began to
whiz among as, hurled from the dark mouth in the cliff in front; arrows,
too, the dreaded little poison sticks, one scratch from which would kill
a man. Yet here our broad shields stood us in good stead, and were soon
quivering with spears and arrows, which but for them would have found a
home in our bodies. But we stayed not there. Following our _indunas_,
we leapt along the ridge, making for each end thereof; and so fiercely
was this done that Gungana and Kalipe, the second _induna_ in command
under him, both entered the cave at the head of their divisions at the
same time. _Hau_! Then it was that the fight began. With a roar that
seemed to split the heart of the very mountain itself we sprang at them.
They could not stand against our furious charge and the weight of our
numbers, yet as fast as we beat them down beneath our knobsticks and
shields they would half rise, or, lying wounded unto death, would grip
the legs of our warriors and overthrow them, driving their spears or
poisoned arrows into their bodies, until we were veritably treading our
way over piles and layers of the slain, both friend and foe. Still
others would rise up in front of us just when we reckoned the last were
reached. _Whau_! How they fo